Ohio senators support killing ACA ‘Cadillac tax’

Ohio’s two U.S. senators – Democrat Sherrod Brown and Republican Rob Portman – both said this week that they support ending a tax on high-cost insurance plans that is scheduled to go in effect 2018 (Source: “Portman seeks ‘bipartisan effort to kill’ health care tax,” Dayton Daily News, Oct. 1, 2015).

The so-called “Cadillac tax” would raise an estimated $91 billion between 2018 and 2028, which would help finance the costs of extending insurance to millions of Americans who previously did not have any health coverage. Health analysts contend the tax would help restrain growing health costs by encouraging companies to offer less generous plans. The ACA provision calls for a 40 percent tax on individual plans costing more than $10,200 a year, or on family plans costing more than $27,500 a year.

A bipartisan group of health and budget analysts, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, urged Congress to keep the tax. In a letter to key lawmakers on Capitol Hill, they wrote the “Cadillac tax will help curtail the growth of private health insurance premiums by encouraging employers to limit the costs of plans to the tax-free amount.”